Michelle's Travel Adventures

Barcelona Day 1

Beautiful Barcelona! This city definitely captured our hearts straight away!

We arrived in the city mid afternoon, and we were lucky to arrange an early check-in to our Airbnb so we did a quick bag drop and then off to grab lunch in our neighbourhood. I found a great lunch spot literally around the corner from where we were staying in the El Born district. Our lunch spot was at Flax & Kale, a fun little family run, “healthy flexitarian” restaurant with a motto: Eat Better – Be Happier – Live Longer. Macy and I ordered the root vegetable salad (I think we won lunch), Makena had the plant based Pad Thai, and Stephen had a tuna poke bowl.

Ok, so now that we’re all fed, the exploring (AKA walking) can begin! First stop is the Arc de Triomf, which is also the entrance into Parc de la Ciutadella. The park is absolutely beautiful, and a wonderful place to stroll and do some people watching. The highlight of the park for us was definitely The Cascada Fountain designed by Antoni Gaudí.

For dinner on night 1 in Barcelona, we went to a cute little spot that we really ended up loving, called Casa Lolea. It was just around the corner from where we were staying, so it was super convenient. The tapas were delicious and we loved their sangrias! We ordered a bottle of their red sangria and for food we ordered a truffle risotto, mixed olives, cured ham and manchego cheese, tomato bread, a potato tortilla (amazing!) and a patatas bravas (one of our top 3 patatas bravas of our whole trip!). We loved the sangria so much that we actually brought home 2 bottles!

Barcelona Day 2

Our first full day in Barcelona! It was actually a holiday here in Spain, so the breakfast and lunch spots that I had originally planned on going to were closed, but no worries, we made the best of it. So plan B for breakfast, and we ended up back at Casa Lolea, and they had an incredible breakfast menu.

After breakfast we walked down towards the waterfront and along the Moll de la Fusta to the Columbus Monument.

From the Columbus Monument we went to the Maritime Museum where Stephen geeked out on all the sailing/maritime/ship building history of Barcelona.

We finally dragged Stephen out of the Maritime Museum and on to more important and exciting things….LUNCH stop #1! Yes lunch stop number 1, because multiple lunch stops in a foodie city like Barcelona is how I roll. And I was so excited that Bar La Plata was open today (spoiler alert: my lunch spot #2 was not open today because of the holiday). Bar La Plata is a teeny tiny little tapas bar that’s been operating since 1945. It only has a couple of tables so most people once they get their food and drink order, just spill out on to the street to enjoy their meal. To paint you a picture, this place is jam packed, and I mean shoulder to shoulder . You have to elbow your way up to the bar, and kinda yell out out your order in Spanish. Did this whole process give me anxiety? Yes, yes it did. Was it worth it? Yes, 1000% with it. There are only 4 food options which are written on the wall. And there has only been these 4 food options since it opened. It never changes. Your choices are: fried sardines, sausage, tomato and onion salad, and anchovies and olives. For drinks they have their house made vermouth or you can have a tumbler of wine poured from a giant wine cask on the wall. We ordered 1 fried sardines plate, a sausage plate and 3 red wines. And it was delicious!

Next, we walked to Barcelonetta, and to lunch stop #2 La Cova Fumade, which ended up being closed today, which was a major bummer. So we just ate at nearby place, which honestly was just fair food, but our server was highly entertaining and we had a great table for people watching in the plaza.

After lunch #2 we walked down to the beach. We walked the entire length of the beach , all the way to the Olympic Marina and back again Honestly Barcelona has so much to offer. I couldn’t believe how nice the beachfront was!

Now we’re headed out for a sunset sail! We booked a sailing charter on Airbnb and it was fantastic! Both girls got to skipper for awhile, we (the girls) sipped lots of cava, and Stephen drank his weight in beer hahahaa !!! Funny cause it’s probably true! This experience was definitely the highlight of our day!

Back on land, and we’re headed to a new, modern paella spot called Mana 75. It’s located right beside the W Hotel. We had a front row seat to the kitchen so we had prime views to the paella making which was cool. We ordered the seafood paella, and if I’m being honest, it was not great. It’s hard to beat the incredible seafood that we are used to at home, and this just did not meet our seafood standards unfortunately. Lesson learned…we’re not ordering seafood again on this trip!

Barcelona Day 3

Rise and shine! We’re headed to Park Güell this morning! I booked the 9:30 AM entrance tickets. That was my first mistake. I should have booked the first time slot of the morning. Our second mistake was once we got inside the park we wandered around leisurely taking in all our surroundings etc. We should have headed straight to the main attraction of the park (the serpentine bench and the steps). And get the pictures done before the hoards of people descended. And then wander around at your leisure. Or book an evening time slot. It’s just not as enjoyable with massive crowds, all trying to get photos of the same spot. We all felt a wee bit let down at this attraction, it just seemed better and more impressive in pictures than in real life for us. But don’t get me wrong, it’s still a beautiful place to see, and I would definitely recommend visiting. Just time your visit to when it would be least crowded.

After we explored Park Guell, we decided to head to La Rambla, but our taxi just so happened to drop us off outside the Sephora I had on my list to check out! Wow! What a coincidence! This is one of the largest Sephora stores, and it has a slide entrance. I was too chicken to actually try out the slide, but Stephen and Makena did and they said it was really fun! The store did not disappoint either! Best Sephora I’ve ever been in.

So La Rambla, was underwhelming honestly. We’re not big on crowds and it was really just a busy, crowded long street with people selling crap, and weird mascots. Not our thing. So for lunch we thought we’d pop in to the Mercat de la Boqueria. Oh my word. This place was BUSY. Like jam packed. I learned a lot about myself here. I do not do well in crowds, and I do even worse in crowds when Im really hungry, and when I’m really hungry I want to sit at a table and order food, not force my way to a crowded market stall to try and order something to eat. It’s good to know thyself. lol. My poor family also learned this lesson today too. And when we finally managed to get to a counter to order something, it was crazy expensive and tasted like crap. So needless to say todays lunch experience was a flop. But let’s move on shall we?!

Into the Gothic Quarter we go! First up on our Gothic Quarter tour was the beautiful Placa Reial, then we moved on to see the Gothic Bridge, and then the gothic La Catedral. At this point we were hot and still a wee bit cranky from lunch, so to cheer up the troops I surprised them with rooftop drinks at Hotel Colon. (Note: you can only get tables for 2 closest to the railing, if your group is larger and you want prime view, consider sitting separately)

After our rooftop drinks we made our way back to the airbnb, but made a quick photo stop at the Palau de la Musica Catalana which was really beautiful. And then we chilled on our rooftop deck until dinner at Arcano, which we really enjoyed.

Barcelona Day 4

Today is all things Gaudí Day! First up is Casa Batllo. Wow! This place is so incredibly impressive! We were so blown away. Then we headed over to La Pedrera the rooftop sculptures which also totally lived up to the hype!

A quick lunch stop at Ristorante Pizzeria Eden for some incredible pizzas and drinkies.

Then we had a guided tour of La Sagrada Familia which knocked our socks off! We added a tower tour to our package so we went up the Passions Tower.

For dinner tonight we booked the Tapas, Taverns and History walking tour with Devour Tours. We totally recommend this experience. We learned a bunch of history, all while eating tapas and drinking wine! We went to Bar del Pi, saw some Picasso street art, tried drinking wine from a porron at Bar Plata, and ate a lot of tapas and wine at Bodega La Palma.

Now it’s time to tipsily pack up because we’re leaving Barcelona in the morning!

BUT! Before we left Barcelona we finally made it to Pasteleria Hoffmann for some delicious pastries! I don’t have a photo of my pastry, cause I shoved it in my mouth so fast lol. no regrets